“I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill” 



 Mahatma Gandhi

The Masked Killer is on the prowl again. 

It is just too early into the New Year.  This time his victim was feminine.  Hajiya Sa’adatu Rimi.  She was only 48 years old.  She was a mother too.  She had five children.  She was a wife.  She was the daughter of some parent. She was a Nigerian woman.  The Masked Killer came to Kano. The time was 2 a.m. on Saturday.  When he left, he left trails of blood, tears, sorrows and wailings.  Kano has not been the same since the news of her death broke out.  Nigeria, once again, is mourning, though distant the loss of another Nigerian woman, a wife and mother arising not from natural but human evil-induced cause.

National newspapers reported that the late Hajiya Sa’adatu, the wife of Alhaji Abubakar Rimi the former civilian governor of old Kano State was stabbed to death by unknown assailants at the family’s Burbin Katsina Road residence in Kano.  A member of the family who saw the deceased last was reported to have said the deceased was in good health up till the time they parted to go to bed.  The late Hajiya Sa’adatu, according to family sources had spent most of her last night watching a movie on television along with family members and she retired to bed circa 1:30 a.m.  Unknown to her, her husband and family members, the Masked Killer was lurking in the darkness waiting to strike. He struck. When they found her, the late Hajiya was in the pool of her blood and when the doctor was called in they all saw a very deep cut in her neck, where the Masked Killer apparently stabbed her.

This is Nigeria. The Masked Killer has slaughtered Hajiya Sa’adatu Rimi. Now, she is dead. The condolences of all the electorates and all well-meaning Nigerians go out to the House of Rimi.  Surely, death is the end of man’s sojourn on this side of eternity.  It is an inevitable appointment all mortals must keep, whether we like it or not.  All men must die.  One day, certainly, we will leave this world.  We come separately. We shall leave separately.  We may not know when or how, but we shall all die.  There is, however, no justification for any mortal whether willfully or by accident to terminate the life of another.  The responsibility for ending life in this world has not been assigned to any human being.  This is why euthanasia in the field of medicine is a sensitive subject, which continues to generate political/moral/emotional debates/tensions around the world.  In North America, helping another commit suicide is a criminal act with the exception of Oregon, which allows people who are terminally ill, and in intractable pain to get a lethal prescription from their physician known as PAS (Physician Assisted Suicide).  

This Masked Killer that has successfully prowled the length and breadth of Nigeria since 1986 to date is an angel of death.  While it is too early to speculate the motive of this angel of death, it would appear that the easiest way to transit as a high profile Nigerian or wife, husband, children or relations of a high profile Nigeria from this world to the great beyond is through the cold hands of this merciless Masked Killer. 

In Nigeria, death is indeed cheap and rightly so.  A nation that does not care for its living cannot shield them from unnatural death.  The agents of death capitalize on this indifference to decimate the population of the country through all kinds of unnatural deaths.  We only account for and mourn the death that appear on the pages of our national dailies.  What about private deaths that go unrecorded and unaccounted for in some homes through malnutrition, poor hygiene and sanitary condition, poverty, suicide, manslaughter, abuse and maltreatment of spouse?  What about private death on the streets caused by gangsterism and local vigilantes’ operations? What about private death by the roadsides through hit-and-run cars, accidents and at times exhaustion, frustration and lack of willpower to continue to live in a place like Nigeria?  What about private death in the maternity homes in the hands of quack nurses, unlicensed doctors and ritual killer matrons whom the majority of the poor patronize because they cannot afford good hospitals that charge exorbitantly for primary healthcare delivery? What about private death on the road, sea and epileptic rail transportation through accidents? What about private death by fire through adulterated kerosene explosion and plane crashes because of the inefficiencies of the system, greed of certain people and inhumanity of man to man?  Where the system works, majority of death cases are usually through natural means or sicknesses that medical science cannot cure yet. The citizens age gracefully and die peaceful.  Our case is different.  Most of our deaths are by unnatural means that are human evil-induced. 

Again, the nation is mourning barely two weeks into the New Year.  The demise of the late Hajiya Sa’adatu is a private death, a great loss to the House of Rimi but undoubtedly a national tragedy because of the untimely manner in which her life was cut short.  Nigeria mourns again.  The death of the late Hajiya is ridiculous.  Ours is a complexly evil society.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to live in Nigeria.  Does it not make sense to say that it is becoming largely unsafe to be a high profile individual or associated with one in Nigeria? Otherwise, there is no reason or justification why anybody would want to kill a woman in her home the way Hajiya Sa’adatu had been hacked down.  Our heart sincerely goes to the House of Rimi in Kano these trying times when the matriarch of the house has been extinguished from the land of the living.  What point are the assailants trying to make?  What scores are they trying to settle? What war are they trying to win in the murder of a woman? 

This Masked Killer?  He is an angel of death.  He is the messenger of evil.  He is the illegal terminator of innocent Nigerians’ lives particularly the high profile ones.  He is the agent of some evil people, wicked group and satanic cabal who must hold on to control and power by all devilish means.  He is a zombie who has no intelligence, no sense of reasons, and no milk of human kindness but acts only on the orders of his evil masters to carry out death sentences on innocent Nigerians.  The hands of the Masked Killer are smeared with the blood of the many innocent and hapless Nigerians he has murdered and no oceans can wash away the stains. The Masked Killer is deadly.  He kills without blinking an eye.  His stock in trade ranges from sudden death, willful murder, political killings, and disguised accidents to circumstantial death and assassination.

But, the Masked Killer is a coward, a big time coward.  He cannot face logic, reason, and power of right as against to might and individual liberty.  It is high time the Masked Killer desisted from his death mission across the country.  We must live and let live.  We must tolerate one another.  We cannot use death to settle scores.  We are not suggesting motives here, but it is obvious that if the death of the late Hajiya Sa’adatu is sincerely investigated, the outcome might be more of murder than robbery gone awry.  We cannot continue to behave as if Nigeria is one big jungle where only the fittest thrives.  We must co-exist in spite of our difference in political affiliations, philosophies, religion, ethnicity as well as personal styles and conflicts.  Evelyn Beatrice Hall writing under the pseudonym of Stephen G. Tallentyre in The Friends of Voltaire said, “I do not agree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.”  This is the ideology that should guide our relationship with opposition instead of resorting to sending the Masked Killer around to wreck havoc in homes and families of people that do not agree with our point of view.  Let every Nigerian be free to express his fundamental human right and exercise his freedom of speech and association as he deems fit under the law without fear of negative consequences. 

Did I hear the Masked Killer laughing and congratulating himself for a job well done for killing a woman, a wife and mother in her home? Do not laugh.  Your perdition is nearer than imagined.  The electorate – the people of Nigeria - shall laugh the last laugh.  The common man may seem weak today and the Masked Killer strong; one day soon and it will not be long, the electorates shall arise to bring this notorious Masked Killer to judgment and demand accountability for the death of so many Nigerians too numerous to mention here.  One day soon, we shall chase this angel of death out of our land.

The Masked Killer is a coward.  He does not have the intellectual capacity to face superior intelligence.  He resorts to weapon of death and selective elimination to liquidate his opponents.  Otherwise, why would anyone want to kill Hajiya Sa’adatu?  What was her offence?  Was it being the wife of Alhaji Rimi? Why would anyone want her dead?  Was blood not flowing in the veins of the plotters and executors of this unnecessary murder? Providence sees everything that is hidden under the sun.  We mortals may be blind; heaven is not.  Why would someone be so callous and debased as to think of eliminating a woman, wife of another person and mother of some children by slaughtering her?  What is the motive behind this waste of a precious life?  Now, what has the death of this woman profited the planners and executioners wherever they might be now?  Do not be surprised that in this wicked world, they might even be among those sympathizing with Alhaji Rimi.  It is simply primordial and barbaric to carry enmity too far to the point of extinguishing a life that God created. 

We will keep on asking “why?” and the Nigeria media will be awash with interesting stories in the next few weeks. Since the news broke out, some reactions have started pointing fingers as to the cause or source of the death of the late Hajiya Sa’adatu.  Some say it is the government.  Some are saying it is not unconnected with the Third Term bid. Others think it is part of the Yoruba Agenda to start liquidating prominent politicians or their relations from the North.  All sorts of insinuations are being made by various people from different parts of the country.  Wisdom has, however, taught us that we should not be fools in rushing to conclusions.

The late Hajiya Sa’adatu Rimi has been buried. No doubt.  The Nigeria Police however has an onerous task, as usual to smoke out the Masked Killer.  In fairness to the Police, their response has been swift.  They have announced the arrest of 13 suspects in connect with the murder of the late Hajiya. N5 million has been set aside as an award to any member of the public who could come forward to furnish information that would assist the Police in tracking the Masked Killer. It was also reported that Police pathologist and a team of crack detectives have been deployed to the scene of the crime.  DCP Haz Iwendi was credited as saying that the “DIG Force CID, Ogbonna Onovo has been directed by the IG to relocate to Kano and coordinate investigation activities”. 

Mr. Ganiyu Daudu, the Kano State Commissioner of Police also said, “The Nigeria Police wish to assure Nigerians that no stone will be left unturned to identify those behind this gruesome murder.”  The challenge behind all these statements and activities is for the Nigeria Police to actually deliver result by fishing out the real Masked Killer.  I doubt if the average Nigerian trust the Police to do a good job.  I wish they did a good job so that they can earn the confidence of the common man and use the singular feat to restore the image of the Nigeria Police that has been dented by the escapades of the Masked Killer over the years.  That is when all the initial gra-gra that the Police are demonstrating now will be meaningful and applauded by the general public.

The Masked Killer appeared on the scene in Nigeria on October 19, 1986 carrying a parcel bomb to the house of late Dele Giwa, the founding editor-in-Chief of Newswatch magazine.  The parcel was delivered and Dele Giwa was blown out of the space called Nigeria into the great beyond.  He was regarded as one of the Africa’s brightest journalists of his times.  Some school of thoughts believed he was on to some revealing news stories days before the Masked Killer visited him.  This Masked Killer is dumb.  If the Nigeria Police read between the lines they can deduce a similar pattern that will enable them track the Masked Killer in this new case of the death of late Hajiya Rimi.  ThisDay online newspaper reported that it reliably gathered that some unknown men had attacked the late Hajiya Sa’adatu in her residence in Abuja some two months earlier.  The Masked Killer had a motive. He had an objective.  Or, why kill the woman?  Now the Police must do something definite to nab this Masked Killer.  We are still asking, “Who killed Dele Giwa?” After the initial gra-gra of Police investigation, nobody has been able to find the Masked Killer and he is allowed to roam the length and breadth of the country killing high profile individuals ever since the death of Dele Giwa.

The Masked Killer on the prowl.  He went to the home of the elder statesman, late Pa Alfred Rewane in October 1995 and shot him dead at the age of 79. The Masked Killer method of cold-blood assassinations in the victim’s own home should not escape the security alertness of high profile Nigerians living today. Now, I doubt if the initial gra-gra has unmasked the Masked Killer yet. 

The Police have not been able to find the Masked Killer who assassinated Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, the senior wife of the late Chief M K O Abiola who also died later under a mysterious circumstances.   In our very eyes, Kudirat Abiola and her driver were shot at point-blank range by Masked Killer near her home in Lagos on June 4, 1996.  She later died in the hospital.  The Police announced an inquiry by a senior officer and offered a reward for information as they have again done in this recent murder of late Hajiya Sa’adatu.  I also doubt if the initial gra-gra has unmasked the Masked Killer yet.

The Masked Killer on the prowl. 

The Masked Killer on the prowl. The Federal Justice Minister and Attorney General, Bola Ige was shot dead in his home in Ibadan on December 23, 2001.  News had it that weeks prior to his death, gunmen raided the grounds of the Osun legislature before the debate over the crisis in the State’s executive. Precisely four death before Bola Ige’s death, one Odunayo Olagbaju, a representative in the Osun State House of Assembly was stabbed to death.  The Nigeria Police made initial success in uncovering the mask of the Killer but the trail went dead soon after. 

The Masked Killer on the prowl.  Barnabas Igwe, chairman of the Anambra State branch of the Nigerian Bar Association and his wife Abigail Amake Igwe were ambushed in their car and brutally murdered in Onitsha in September 2002.

The Masked Killer on the prowl.  On February 8, 2003, an ANPP senatorial candidate in the southeastern state of Imo and former commissioner in the Imo state government, Ogbonnaya Uche was shot in his home in Owerri. He died two days later.  Few days later, Theodore Agwatu who was the principal secretary to the Imo State governor was shot and killed in his home on February 22.

The Masked Killer on the prowl. Marshall Harry, the national vice chairman for the South-South Zone of the largest opposition party, the ANPP was killed on March 5, 2003.  The story is just too fresh to be forgotten.  It was reported that four armed men in plain clothes visited Marshall Harry’s residence in Abuja.  They tied up the guard, forcefully gained entrance around 3 a.m.  They collected the mobile phones in the house and got Marshall’s daughter to lead them to her father’s bedroom.  Two bullets, Marshall Harry was silenced and stone dead.  Did you see similar pattern between the death of Marshall Harry and Hajiya Sa’adatu Rimi? 

The Masked Killer on the prowl.  Captain Jerry Agbeyegbe, an aviation activist was brutally murdered on Third Mainland Bridge in Lagos at about 3:05 a.m. on October 12, 2004.  He was a reformer.  Media reports confirmed that over 29 bullets were pumped into the late Agbeyegbe’s chest in order to silence his reformist’s voice.  Many theories were concocted to explain away his dead.  He was a husband, a father and a lover of his country.  Like the previous murder before him, his investigation trail has also gone dead. 

The late Hajiya Sa’adatu Rimi has no doubt been laid to rest from her earthly struggle.  Her death must not add up to the statistics in the snowballing list of unresolved murders in the hands of the Masked Killer that prowled the land. Our political leadership must stand up to the challenge of ending the free roaming of this Masked Killer and resolving his mystery in the land.  The political leadership must step in and take decisive action against the Masked Killer before he does more damages.  The apex political leadership should deploy its federal might and resources to resolving the mystery surrounding the death of the late Hajiya Sa’adatu.  The successful investigation and nabbing of the Masked Killer will pave way for the prosecution of the other outstanding unresolved murder cases since the time of Dele Giwa.

Robot  # 1 | 16.01.2006 00:50

“I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill” &nbs...Read the full article.

IKB  # 2 | 16.01.2006 09:47

Why is IBB being quizzedby the SSS?

Palamedes  # 3 | 16.01.2006 13:49

Come now, you are confusing me with mixing up the murder of Hajiya Sa’adatu Rimi, euthanasia and PAS (Physician Assisted Suicide) in Oregon. This Masked Killer ...since 1986... is an angel of death. I am getting even more confused. The profile of the murderer from your account is a "he", and was masked (?) and has been at it for about 20 years; and he knows that death in Nigeria is cheap and "rightly so". He is also an "angel of death" and of some evil people, wicked group and satanic cabal; he is a coward and "a zombie" who has no intelligence and with no sense of reasons. My brother, I go die ooo! As a Nigerian, I would like to pay my condolence to the family of the late Hajiya Sa’adatu Rimi. However, I am of the opinion that she will be yet another statistics. I have heard the Nigerian Police use that phrases "no stone will be left unturned" since I was a child. In reality, the Nigerian Police cannot even roll over sand much more a stone. In a homicide such as this, no one will be allowed to enter the house except the forensic experts. My bet is that the short-stick–carrying-obese-big-oga-police-commander and his entourage would already have contaminated the crime scene, followed by a photo opportunity and press statement including the phrase "...no stone will be left unturned..." Babatunde Fajimi seems to discount the husband of the decease, house helpers, and other close associates of the family. In true investigation, the inner circle of the decease is normally the starting point for the investigation, but I doubt if the Nigerian Police will even countenance the idea of an inside job. How did the murderer sneak into the house and find where she was; has the murderer been to the house before, or was the murderer provided with the layout of the house by a third party? Was she the intended victim or someone else? Did she have any serious enemies - at work, politics or in business, in her past or leading to her death? Has she received any threat lately? If she retired to bed at about 1:30 a.m. and the murderer stroke at 2 a.m. then the murderer must have been watching her movement, which means that the murderer or/and the accomplice must be in the house or thereabout. Alternatively, an accomplice in the house or thereabout, must have informed the murderer when she left for bed at about 1.3a.m. If these were possible, then land and mobile phone records of all the people in the house must be subpoenaed to check if anyone had made or received calls at the house at about 1.30 a.m. Was there any struggle and if so did the other occupants of the house hear any noise and at what time? Did someone help the murderer get away and did anyone see the murderer before or after the act? Have the murder weapon been found? The cut must have caused splatter over the murderer; did the murderer change the bloodstained cloths? If not, did any member of the public, taxi drivers, bus drivers et cetera see the murderer with bloodstained cloths? Surely, like the 419ers, Nigerian criminals are not very sophisticated in their knowledge of foot-printing, finger-printing, DNA, profiling, the question is how advanced is the knowledge of the Nigeria Police with regard to these modern investigation tools and techniques.

bfajimi  # 4 | 17.01.2006 02:36

I like your well-reasoned comments, which are generally brilliant. But, I think a more light on the identity and anatomy of the Masked Killer, and the citing of murder, euthanasia and PAS in Oregon in this article would help. The Masked Killer is not a male serial killer going around town since killing Dele Giwa, as you interpreted. As used in the article, the Masked Killer is the personification/typology of a broad-based systematic liquidation of perceived threats, opposition and political enmity privately or state sponsored by individuals, group of people or a syndicate (cultic, military, civilian, business or private) to protect their interests or hold to control and power. This operation is shrouded in conspiratorial cover up (which is an open secret though because people speculate from time to time in an attempt to identify the real killers) because nobody has been brought to book in any high profile killing/political death from Dele Giwa to Bola Ige to Marshall Harry to Jerry Agbeyegbe. See why the Killer is masked? If the individuals or syndicate involved in the liquidation of other people because of differences or in other to settle scores are not cowards, they don't they use conventional means to engage their ‘enemies’ in battles and subdue them if they actually have the intelligence and superior reasoning capability to do so. Death is not the civilized means of winning disputes and personal battles. See why they patronize the angel of death who spread sorrows and darkness in homes and families across the country? And if the agents they use to carry out these deadly missions are not zombies, what are they? Your guess is as good as mine. And, it is sad that the colour of his mask is green white green. The murder of Hajiya Sa’adatu Rimi, euthanasia and the practice of PAS in Oregon are not the same thing. Again, what did I write? There is, however, no justification for any mortal whether willfully or by accident to terminate the life of another. The responsibility for ending life in this world has not been assigned to any human being. This is why euthanasia in the field of medicine is a sensitive subject, which continues to generate political/moral/emotional debates/tensions around the world. In North America, helping another commit suicide is a criminal act with the exception of Oregon, which allows people who are terminally ill, and in intractable pain to get a lethal prescription from their physician. Known as PAS (Physician Assisted Suicide). The elimination/termination of life through whatever means is not the prerogative of any mortal. We hold our different scientific, religious or moral views but life is so sacred that no human being is allowed to eliminate/terminate it, particularly in a murderous manner as is commonly practised by the Masked Killer in Nigeria. Anyway, I honest hope that the Nigeria Police Force will take a cue from your analysis of how the murder case should have been handled and investigated. I do not know if our Police have the sophisticated and technology to handle this crime in a modern and an efficient way to quicken the unmasking of this unbridled Killer.